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Matt Murray and the fractured relationship with DJ Smith, Sens management |
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First a quick look back at last night's win for the Sens, but the real purpose of this blog is to talk about the friction that exists between Matt Murray and DJ Smith.
The Ottawa Senators grinded out a huge 3-1 road win in Buffalo, rebounding from a tough defeat at home to St. Louis two nights ago. This was a character win as the Sens are without their number one goaltender in Matt Murray, number one defenseman, and arguably their best player in Thomas Chabot, and two-thirds of their top line in Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. Numerous players elevated their play which was nice to see. Austen Watson, Tyler Ennis, and Nick Holden stood out all night long, along with the play dynamite play of Connor Brown who led the forward group as he has logged the most TOI almost every night since returning from the jaw injury.
The Sens have back-to-back games at home this weekend, starting with Boston on Saturday who absolutely dominated Ottawa last weekend by initiating and dictating the play all game long. Then the NY Rangers visit on Sunday for an early evening start to make up for a game back in November. Both teams are locked into playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, so the Sens will have their work cut out for them.
The defense pairings were changed last night by the urging of upper management! First off, Sens GM Pierre Dorion called up Dylan Heatherington, it wasn't a case of DJ Smith asking for him. Plus don't be surprised if he's in the lineup Saturday against Boston after what happened last week when the likes of Josh Brown, the supposed goalie protector, did nothing on numerous occasions when Boston crashed the crease. In fact, in one of the most physical games of the season for Ottawa, Brown had ZERO hits. When more of the same thing happened on Tuesday night against St. Louis, this time management learned from the team's mistakes, something this coaching staff doesn't do very well. There has been a lot of frustration from upper management in how the coaching staff won't change the blueline pairings, but they constantly change the forward lines which is why management strongly urged DJ to change the pairings.
The real purpose of this blog is to address a topic that has been brewing for months between Matt Murray and DJ Smith. I've had three really good sources over the course of the last few months come to me with information about the Murray situation off and on. During that time, I've reached out to other contacts to verify what was being said behind closed doors and each one of them was able to validate what I was being told. Now that these sources have allowed me to go forward with what I had been told over the last three months, let's break down how we have arrived at this point with Matt Murray.
If we go back to late November when Matt Murray was sent down to Belleville of the AHL, he felt very strongly that he was being made the scapegoat of the team's losing woes. There were direct quotes from DJ himself criticizing Murray in his postgame pressers throughout November, while not holding other players accountable. This has long been an issue with DJ since taking over the head coaching duties in Ottawa almost 3 years ago. Murray was incensed by this as he felt DJ was talking out of both sides of his mouth, when players like Josh Brown and Nikita Zaitsev were given a free pass far too often, not being held accountable for their poor play.
In fact, Murray went to his agent about his treatment by DJ Smith, who approached Dorion about these issues. Murray didn't start for two weeks after Dorion was told about the friction between player and coach, then things went sideways. Not long after DJ criticized Murray again in the loss to San Jose on November 24th, is when things took a turn for the worse with the player/coach relationship. The team truly hoped Murray would be picked up off waivers when they sent him down to Belleville because, at that point, both DJ and management felt that the relationship was severely fractured beyond repair. At that time, a few local media members called out Dorion on the communication breakdown between player, agent, and management with regards to the handling of the Murray demotion. Rumours about how the situation was handled swirled around the team. Murray booked his own flight home from California to Ottawa, not wanting to stay around with the team after being placed on waivers.
When Murray was recalled after Christmas, I was told he came back with a major chip on his shoulder. He felt that now the only way possible out of Ottawa would be to perform better than he ever has in the hopes a team would trade for him, even with this 10 team no-movement clause. In Murray's first start back on January 1st against Toronto, a 6-0 loss, Murray felt the team quit on him and didn't play hard in front of him. I've since re-watched that game and there were some instances where you could see his frustration level with his teammates, particularly his defense as his body language spoke volumes. With Ottawa not having another game for 12 days, I was told Murray worked harder than ever in reclaiming the form he had in leading the Pens to their last Stanley Cup. Once the Sens schedule resumed in Calgary, Murray went on a tear going 5-2 in his 7 starts, and in those two losses, one was in OT the other in a shootout. But my biggest takeaway from his dominating stretch is that when DJ held his pressers, he always differs to the Sens goalie coach Zac Bierk saying he will listen to Bierk tells him about when Murray and Forsberg should start. This didn't happen last year. If you were able to read in between the lines, Murray was no longer communicating with DJ, but rather with Bierk who then would give DJ a sense of how Murray was feeling. Plus, many inside the Sens organization won't talk about why Pierre Groulx was reassigned into a scouting role last April with the club. Many were shocked by the move as Groulx was in that role for five years and was extremely liked by Craig Anderson during his time in Ottawa. Was this move done by the urging of Murray? This could be a pattern with Murray, as Mike Bales was demoted as the goalie coach in Pittsburgh back in 2017 after helping Murray to two Stanley Cups in goal. Mike Buckley was elevated at the time and Bales eventually left the Pens organization. It was reported that Murray had a strained relationship with Bales as for the reason management changed goalie coaches.
These actions by Murray led me to believe he still had a major chip on his shoulder from what happened to him back in late November as now DJ was deferring to Bierk on everything goalie-related. Now let's look at what happened recently with Murray's starts against Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis in which he stopped 104 of 111 shots before leaving the Blues game with ten minutes to go. The Sens were shut out twice and only mustered two goals of offense against the Blues. Rumblings were starting with Murray again, he felt the team was playing harder for Anton Forsberg than him. Forsberg in his two starts got the offensive support that Murray wasn't getting, was it a coincidence? Who knows, but that's what happens when you have a goaltender that doesn't trust the coaching staff or management. Ottawa won at Washington 4-1 after looking dreadful the game before against Boston and Murray in goal, then a 3-1 win in Buffalo after a miserable outing against St. Louis(with Murray in goal) and not to mention the 4-3 win over Carolina when Ottawa got shutout the next game out against Murray's former team in Pittsburgh.
This now leads to me where we are at now with the Murray saga. He left the Blues game with an injury off a very soft fall on him shortly after the Blue's fourth goal, Murray skated to the bench and left the game. In DJ's presser, he sounded stunned as to what happened, saying he saw nothing that led to the apparent injury. This is where the point of contention that Murray has with his defense, he feels they don't protect him or play as hard for him as they do for Forsberg. It's hard to argue when players have a free for all on him in the Bruins and Blues games. In fact, if you go back and look at the TOI of the blue line in his last 3 starts in goal, the ice time of Brown and Zaitsev declines each period and I'm told it's because Murray has been expressing his frustration in between periods about how these two players aren't being held to the same standard as the rest of the team. He feels that these two players are too silent on the ice as well, not communicating with him as goaltenders like it when the defense is in constant communication with them. He has lobbied for Heatherington and Lassi Thomson to be recalled, even going as far to say he wants Michael Del Zotto recalled from Belleville. When Murray was in Belleville, these two had several heart-to-heart chats about DJ and how the blueline situation has been handled. MDZ was told by DJ he would get top 4 TOI when he signed in Ottawa during the off-season. That adds another layer to this situation that I will write about at a further date.
What will be really telling about the Murray situation is if Forsberg isn't traded by the March 21st trade deadline. If Dorion doesn't move Forsberg, it would signal that Ottawa is looking to move Murray in the off-season, while re-signing Forsberg to have him and Filip Gustavsson be the goaltending duo next year as Gus won't be waiver exempt next season in the final year of his two year extension. Lastly, the other point of contention with Murray is that both Brown and Zaitsev create chaos in the defensive zone far too much, leaving Murray to stand on his head. Any former NHLer will tell you, don't make your problem someone else's problem but that's exactly what these two players do on the blueline. It's very clear neither player wants to handle the puck, so they sling it back to their defense partner every time, regardless of where they are on the ice, putting their defense partner in bad situations! This is another major point of contention with Murray, which is why he has asked for Thomson and Heatherington to be in the lineup over these two players on numerous occasions.
Let's face it, perception is everything and it's hard not to agree the frustrations Murray has with this coaching staff. Well, Sens fans, what do you think management should do with Murray? Do you agree with Murray's issues that he has with a few players, the coaching staff and management? If Murray returns to play this weekend, one has to think if he was sending a message to management in leaving the Blues game but returning one game later? Thoughts and comments on this situation.
Thanks for reading.
Kevin
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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